Persistence pays

A local student is
part of the Katimavik
experience —~ finally!
\COMMUNITY B1

MOLlen Wood

\NEWS A2~—s

Province may halt New
Skeena wood sale due to past
unauthorized timber land sales

In the house

Young curlers take on
province at the Northern
BC Winter Games
\SPORTS B4

:

$1.00 PLUS 7¢ GST
($1.10 plus 8¢ GST
outside of the Terrace area) .

Bingo players spend
$5.5 million a year here

By JEFF NAGEL
_ THE AMOUNT OF : money
~ community groups here. get from
bingo has fallen for two straight
years, even. though bingo players
are spending and losing as much 2 as
ever.

Government records show Ter-
race groups received nearly $257,000
less in 2003-04 than they did in 2001
—a drop of 15 percent.

In 2001-02. 47 Terrace groups

received $1.74 million from bingo,
according to the province's gaming
policy branch.

That fell to $1.48 million handed ©

out to 40 groups in 2003-04.

The drop has raised: suspicions
among some local groups, who think
money is being funnelled away to
Victoria.

“T believe the moriey i is going into»:

Gaming facility
improvement fund

million

Supplies
ie. bingo cards
-$60,000_

The province’ S gaming payout ©

to Terrace groups has quietly
dropped by $250, 000 a year

general revenues,” says Lois Dov-
hler, executive director of Terrace
Big Brothers and Big Sisters.

Her group; which matches youths
up with adults willing to help them,

‘has shut its downtown office and re-

located to Dochler’s home because
of the shortage of money.
“We .-can't afford the rent, the

Mill auction set

By JEFF NAGEL
MARCH . 24° has been set as
liquidation day for the Terrace’s
New Skeena sawmill.

But it’s still far from certain the

mill will be auctioned off piece-
meal on that day, says mayor Jack
Talstra.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Don-
ald Brenner Jan. 27 approved receiv-
er Larry Prentice’s request to turn
the sawmill here over to Maynards
auction house for liquidation.

Talstra said there’s still a 15-day
period in which Prentice can halt liq-
uidation plans and sign a deal with
one of the groups bidding for the
sawmill.

“You've got to remember even if.

the 15 days are over, Maynards is in
the business of selling,” Talstra said.

Someone could still buy the mill
intact then, he said, they’d just be
buying it from the liquidators rather

‘ than the receiver.

“You never know,” Talstra said.

“There still could be someone pur-

chasing it as a going concern.”

He conceded he is more optimis-_
‘tic a deal is possible to restart the

mill than Prentice appears to be.
“The prospects for a successful

conclusion to these discussions has

deteriorated.” the receiver said in

his Jan. 24 report recommending the

mill go to auction.
“The interest of one group ap-

‘pears to have waned.” Prentice said.

“And while the second group re-
mains very interested in discussing
an acquisition, their ability to make
a commercially reasonable offer for

heat, the light — ‘those
things,” she said.

Big Brothers and Big Sisters now
get $28,650 per. year from .bingo
here, government records show.

That's been dropping steadily,
down from $45,100 in 2001 and
$60,000 in 2000.

Big Brothers and Sisters is not

kinds of

_ alone.

_ At least 25 other Terrace groups
that received bingo moncy in 2001
have seen their grants drop 10 per
cent or more.

Just four groups are getting al
least 10 per cent more money than
they received in 2001.

“I havent heard of any groups
getting more money,” Dochler said.

~ One of the few winners, the Ker-
mode Friendship Society. is now get-
ting $164,000 — up from $117,000 in
2001..

Some new groups have been add-
ed, but others have lost their bingo
affiliations altogether.

And the increases don’t come
close to offsetting the net decrease.

. Players continue to spend around
$5.5 million per year at the Lucky

Cont’d on Page AS

for March 24

the. Terrace assets is significantly i in
doubt.”

No actual offer has been made for
the mill here, he said, but the terms
discussed fall far short of the liqui-
dation value.

Maynards has dropped its mini-
mum guaranteed payout from the
Terrace sawmill auction by $ 100, 000
to $2.55 million.

Prentice said he has made it clear
that number is “a minimum thresh-
old for an offer on the mill equip-
ment.”

The estimate from the auctioneers

covers all equipment, rolling stock,’

removable buildings, scrap steel and
materials.

Maynards officials said the mini-
mum guarantee was reduced due to
worsening conditions in the forest

‘industry.

“Since our proposal in Novem-
ber three to four other B.C. sawmills
have come onto the liquidation mar-
ket, two of which will go to auction
prior to the Terrace sawmill auction
in March,” their proposal says.

“As a result, there is an oversup-

ply of Sawmill equipment. on the ~
. market, resulting in, lower liquida-

tion and auction prices.” ,

The auctioneer: will mail out
30,000 brochures to promote the
sale here.

Under Maynards’ terms, a
$115,000 break fee must be paid,
along with any other expenses. if
the receiver strikes a deal to sell the
sawmill within the allowed 15-day
period.

Cont'd on Page A2

prog ra
to star

“TERRACE’S NORTHWEST Community College (NWCC)

campus is to be the home of [8 Bachelor of Science i in Nurs- -

ing students this fall, officials announced at a press confer-

~ ence held at Mills Memorial Hospital yesterday.

The college will offer the first two years of the four-year
. degree program and the University of Northern British Co-
lumbia (UNBC) the final two years.

Graduates can then go on to write exams to ‘quali y for
their registered nurse status.

NWCC president Stephanie Forsyth said the program,
which will take in a new crop of students each year, will
help fill a chronic registered nurse shortage at northwestern
hospitals and other health care facilities.

“There’s not only a shortage, _ but the nursing population °

is aging,” she said. °.

Northwestern hospitals here and elsewhere have relied on
foreign recruiting to help. ‘fill gaps.

The program also fits a central philosophy of expanding
* éducation programs. for-those who live in the north, Forsyth
added.

“This is about training people i in the north for the north. 7
So this program is great news for the college and for the.

northwest,” she said, ;
The program will be taught by.a mixture of NWCC and
UNBC instructors with practical training to be coordinated

with the Northern Health Authority which 1 Tuns northern

” health care facilities. .

Combined with the 24 student spaces in the. college’s
licensed practical nursing program, the.introduction of the
degree program means there will soon be 42 nursing spaces
in Terrace, making it among the smallest centres in B.C. to
offer such a range ‘of training.

Skeena MLA Roger Harris said NWCC and UNBC are
on their way to creating a centre of health training excellence
in Terrace.

“If you want to make education affordable, you bring it
home and this is what’s.happening here. This is the real stuff
- happening on the ground here,” he, said. *

Harris said the placement here of two nursing programs
now and the planned arrival here in .18 months time of

UNBC medical students for field experience ‘will make the
_ city stand out.

“It is putting the city and the ‘institutions on the map in B.C.,”
the MLA continued of the expanding health care programs.

“There is also a very real economic development compo-
nent for our community,” Harris added. “With this; there is
no going backward. It is only going forward.”

The College of New Caledonia has a similar science de-
gree- granting program with UNBC in Quesnel and in Prince

George and there is degree program in Courtenay on Van-

couver Island.

NWCC dean Katherine McIndoe, who helped put the pro-
gram together, said students will spend the first-year taking a
core of science and related courses and begin to concentrate »

on nursing beginning their second year.

“Beginning in the second year some of the courses will |

involve academics as well as clinical placements,” she said.

Students will spend more time in health care facilities as
they enter the latter stages of their education.

McIndoe said the program is being designed so as not to
place students in area health care facilities at the same time
as licensed practical nursing students who also require clini-
cal placements. °

That's to avoid overloading health care facilities with stu-

dents, she said.

NWCC’s licensed practical nurse program is also fairly :

new and the third class of 24 students is now more than half-
way finished training.

Forsyth said the college’s overall sciences program, ‘will
be solidified by the presence of 18 new students.

Gov’t tagged for mill sale

LES WATMOUGH says B.C. Premier Gordon Camp-
bell and cabinet minister Richard Thorpe should be
charged with breach of trust over the province’s handling
of the Skeena Cellulose sale.

The long-time Thornhill regional district represen
tative says the province, as majority owner of the be-
leagucred company in 2001, sold it for less than it was
worth after it went into bankruptcy protection.

New owners; NWBC Timber and Pulp, failed to open
up the re-named New Skeena Forest Products and it also
went into bankruptcy protection in late 2003. The com-
pany’s assets are now to be liquited to pay creditors.

Watmough says the province failed its duty bv selling -
the company for $6 million when it said it had more than
$40 million in assets. He's also critical of the way the
sale proceeded, saying the process did not follow usual
rules.

The Kitimat-Stikine regional district board tabled
Watmough’s Jan. 22 motion to have Campbell and then-
enterprise minister Thorpe charged with breach of trust.

The board has asked its administrators to provide
more information, including investigating the process
that would be required to act on the resolution,

2 ee epee TF